In 20 odd years it's never happened to me, I've never seen it happen, so logically it couldn't happen to me, so I never even thought it a possibility. Then yesterday, fell off at Millenium (a common occurance there) a fair way out from a bolt (a common occurance there) in a fairly horizontal position (a common occurance there) and found myself upside down in a big swing...luckily I was far enough up to not hit anything, but on a lower bolt there...
Now most who read this will probably scoff and call me a nancy for bringing it up, but I figure if it makes just 1 person think of the possibility next time they find themselves climbing something steep its a good thing. It also made me wonder how many other possible ways to hurt myself my complacency conveniently ignores...
I suppose the real nancy in me says I should wear a helmet, but that's just not cool...

Not trying to be patronising, but there are certain things you can do to avoid upside down falls. Number one being: always make sure when leading and falling above the last piece of protection to not have the rope behind your leg rather then between rock and leg/body.

On 4/12/2012 martin_austrALia wrote:>Not trying to be patronising, but there are certain things you can do to>avoid upside down falls. Number one being: always make sure when leading>and falling above the last piece of protection to not have the rope behind>your leg rather then between rock and leg/body.

Yes, I have had this happen on 'Birdman' at Araps using double ropes, inattentive belayer did not eqalize 'left-hand' rope which, unbeknownst to me, then hooked around back of my leg 'tipping' me upside down and then nearly pounding my bare head into the slab below line. Don't like climbing with this particular belayer now on double ropes because he later said "I don't like using double ropes" I can see why now, his technique is shit!!

On 4/12/2012 martin_austrALia wrote:>...SNIP... to not have the rope behind your leg rather then between rock and leg/body.

Yup, sage advice. I had an interesting experience relating to this issue, about two weekS ago while climbing at the Youies. My regular climbing buddy brought a friend along, who is a nice bloke and seemed to be a competent climber, onsighting gr22 sports routes... We'll refer to him as friend #2.

Anyways, my buddy was belaying another friend who stepped up to a new footer and had the rope running across the back of her calf. She made no move to fix the issue so my buddy pointed out the issue when friend #2 said, 'Don't stress, it happens all the time and you never hear of people getting injured because of it! And the pros do it in the movies too...!' I related my inverted experience and suggested it's probably something to be mindful of and not get into the habit of allowing... I'm pretty sure my suggestion fell on deaf ears...

On 4/12/2012 Pat B wrote:>>Yes, I have had this happen on 'Birdman' at Araps using double ropes,>inattentive belayer did not eqalize 'left-hand' rope which, unbeknownst>to me, then hooked around back of my leg 'tipping' me upside down and then>nearly pounding my bare head into the slab below line. Don't like climbing>with this particular belayer now on double ropes because he later said>"I don't like using double ropes" I can see why now, his technique is shit!!

On 5/12/2012 egosan wrote:>On 5/12/2012 ajfclark wrote:>>This R&I article has a few upside down fall stories >http://www.rockandice.com/news/2376>tnb-the-perils-of-sport-climbing>>From the article. Gold!>
what's the weird mural painted on the left hand face?